Megaman Reborn II, Rise of the Sidewinders
by The Asylum of the Devitory
Summary: After vanishing with hardly a trace following the destruction of Masterframe, Rock, the human corpse reanimated with Reploid technology, returns to combat the resurging Maverick virus. More weapons and abilities are waiting for him, and more lost memories of the man he was before resurface. Sequel to Megaman Reborn
1. Resurface

The Asylum of the Damned Presents…

- - - - -

Jay took a long sip of coffee from his mug before placing it on the desk against the wall of the small cubical room. Decorated with nothing more than cold steel and rivets, Jay shivered and opened the top drawer, drawing out the hilt of a laser-scalpo and a handful of other pointy instruments. Jay looked over his shoulder at the lifeless Reploid stretched out on the operating table behind him, and hoped that he would not find what he feared he would. Flexing his fingers, Jay sat down on the chair by his desk, automatically sliding up to the titanium cranium of the Reploid's bare skull, stripped of its artificial skin. Activating the cutting laser blade on the scalpo, Jay carefully carved around the crown of the Reploid's head, catching it in his hand as it fell and setting it beside the remains of the Reploid corpse. Hundreds of weapon wounds had left this Reploid in a torn heap not even a week ago, but that was nothing compared to the damage that it had wrought. Jay could still hear the screams as clear and crisp in his memory as though it had all happened hours ago. Switching off his scalpo, Jay picked up a needle-like probe and prodded around inside the Reploid's inner CPU, removing chips and circuitry as if carving out a Jack-o-lantern. Within minutes, the dead Reploid's head was completely disassembled, leaving Jay thankful that he had decided to become a technician instead of a surgeon.

Finally finding the data chip he was looking for, Jay flicked a switch on the arm rest of his chair, and was whisked away back to his desk. Logging into the computer before him and plugging the chip into a small slot on the side of the monitor, the window that immediately popped up to greet him on the screen made his jaw drop. "Oh hell no," Jay murmured, staring in disbelief. Jay reached for the phone beside his computer, and punched in a speed dial button.

"Issac here. Jay, what have you found?"

"It's-" Jay stammered, "it's just what we thought."

There was a long pause. "Are you sure?"

Jay glanced at the monitor again. "No mistake," he said. "It's infected, all right."

Another long pause. "Then it's resurfaced… again."

"'Fraid so."

"Jay, pack the Reploid up and send him to incinerations. And you're sure the beacon implanted in his brain is still working?"

"Positive."

"Good. I'll have Alice give him a call."

- - - - -

Due to popular demand, the sequel to the sixth-generation Megaman fanfiction…

- - - - -

Coffee. Marie never knew how humans could stand the drink. Although Reploids like herself could ingest liquids just like humans, she hated the taste of coffee, no matter how much sugar she dumped into it. Ironically, being the helping hand around the Reploid repair hangar consisted primarily of rushing around the gigantic complex delivering the vile substance by the buckets to the human technicians. And for whatever reason, Jay had also been requesting coffee; lots of coffee. Ever since the incident downtown a week ago, Marie had never seen Jay leave the building, not even to step outside. Everyone was as tight-lipped about the situation as the atmosphere of paranoia that ravaged the facility. Jay, the once cheerful mechanic was now a melancholy bore, wiping sweat from his brow with his now horribly stained bandanna. He only came out of his operating room maybe once or twice a day, leaving Marie to worry about his health. Jay was the one who brought her back online, and she was not about to let him self-destruct. With thermos in hand, Marie headed down the hallway en route to Jay's office and rounded a corner.

She bumped into the chest of a much larger Reploid, nearly dropping her coffee. "Marie?" Asked the Reploid, "Is that you?"

Marie stepped back and briefly studied the tall stranger. Bony cheeks on a thin, ghost-white face accented the wrinkles and bags underneath his cloudy green eyes, certainly no face she had ever seen before. "Um, who are you?" Marie asked.

"Don't you remember?" He asked.

Marie paused. "Um, no."

The Reploid stroked his gnarled goatee before running his fingers though his plentiful locks of dark grey hair. "Didn't Auto say hi for me?"

It took a few seconds for it all to connect. "Oh- Oh my God," Marie stammered, "Is that really you?"

"In the rotting flesh."

Suddenly, Marie lurched forward and buried a fist into the Reploid's stomach, doubling him over immediately. "That's for destroying me," she huffed, carrying on her way.

The Reploid groaned and stood up straight again. "Well, nice seeing you again too, Marie," he snorted with a smirk.

Marie looked over her shoulder and flashed a smile. "You too, Rock."

- - - - -

MEGAMAN REBORN II- RISE OF THE SIDEWINDERS


	2. Reintroductions

The smaller machine hissed loudly and steam billowed out from its top before splitting open and releasing Rock's head. "So Rock, how's your new skin feel?" Marie asked from across the small room.

Rock stepped out of the large chamber attached to the wall and stretched. He turned to the full-body mirror, and admired the bright, youthful face staring back at him. "The same titanium alloy that Reploids use, right?" he asked.

Marie nodded. "Flexible," she said, "and tougher than steel."

Rock ran his fingers down the sides of his neck, and immediately knew the exact temperature, diameter, and force exerted of his fingertips on his skin. "I can't even tell where my old skin begins," he muttered.

"Oh, that? We scraped all that grimey stuff off."

"What?"

"It's not just your new skin, it's your only skin."

Rock rolled up the sleeve of his T-shirt and pinched his shoulder. "Oh," he murmured, glancing briefly downwards with sudden worry.

"What's wrong?" Marie asked. Then, quickly catching on to Rock's concern, the said, "Oh, that. Yes, it is elastic enough."

"Well, that's a relief," said Rock a little sheepishly. "I'm surprised you Reploids know so much about human stuff, y'know, since you're robots and all."

"Shows what you humans know about Reploids like me," said Marie with a smirk, "Since Reploid factories were given to the Reploids to run, our creators decided that humans shouldn't be the only ones allowed to have so much fun."

Rock shivered. "You sure you should be telling me this?" he asked, "I'm still human, you know."

"What's left of you, that is."

Rock grinned. "Touche."

Just then the door to the small facility opened, and in walked three familiar faces. "Hey Rock," said the blonde lady, "it's been a long time."

Rock stepped forward to pat her on the shoulder. "Roll," he said with a smile, "how are you doing?"

"How's the new heart and skin working out?" asked the lean man in the back.

"Feels pretty good, Auto," said Rock, flexing his arms. "Blues, nice to see you too again."

The tall man in the back nodded. "Rock, we're not hiding underground anymore. There's no need to keep using our codenames."

Rock paused in confusion. "Codenames?"

"Isaac Bluffman," he answered.

"Huh. You know, I always thought Auto was a strange name," Rock said, looking over Roll's shoulder.

"Jay Heeler sounds a lot better huh?" answered its owner.

"Alice," said the blonde in front of Rock, "Alice Keyes."

"So Rock," said Jay, brushing by Alice, "remember your name yet?"

Rock shook his head. "Nope, nothing else has come back. But by the way, Aut- I mean, Jay, you've got all kinds of machines here, don't you have one that could dig up my memory for me?"

"Hey hey, whoa," said Jay, "implanting stuff in your brain is one thing, messing around with it is another."

"It may be possible," said Isaac, "but the risks are too great to ignore. We still need you."

Rock rolled his eyes. "So I heard," he said, tapping his forehead. "What's gone wrong now?"

"Rock," said Isaac, "How much do you know about the Maverick virus?"

"The Maverick virus?" Rock asked. "I thought Masterframe had that wiped out."

"And you wiped out Masterframe."

"Huh. So I did."

"Unfortunately," Isaac continued, "Contrary to what we had believed prior to Masterframe's malfunction, all traces of the virus were not contained and destroyed."

"Are you saying that's why Masterframe went bezerk?" Rock asked, "I thought you said someone hacked into it."

There was a brief, uneasy silence.

"That it was," said Isaac finally, "but Masterframe's influence only suppressed the virus, and any Reploid's willingness to contract it. And with Masterframe still being rebuilt, the specimens that were undetected have begun to infect Reploids again."

"Masterframe's still being rebuilt?" Rock asked. "It's been nearly a year since I totaled him."

"And it'll take another two years to reconstruct his neural circuitry and to upgrade his system security."

"Hey look on the bright side," said Jay, "If Masterframe goes crazy again, we know who to call."

"Nothing like knowing you're needed," Rock muttered as Marie cheerfully nudged him in his ribs.

"Back to the matter at hand," said Isaac sharply, "since Jay confirmed the first infection, several more Reploids have gone Maverick, including ones that oversee vital facilities."

"And lemme guess," said Rock, "They've shut down whatever it is they run, and you need me to fix that."

Isaac nodded. "Follow me to the briefing hall, Rock. I'll give you all the details there."


	3. Revisited

Rock stared in amazement at the gigantic screen staring back at him. "I should have brought some popcorn," he said, taking time to glance around at the theater-like briefing room and taking a seat in the middle row.

"Well pay attention," said Isaac sitting down beside him as the lights went out, "because we don't have time for an encore."

The screen flashed, and Rock soon found himself looking at a picture of a power plant. "Hey, isn't that the same place I fought Lightning at?"

"That it is, and guess who's gone bezerk again?" said Isaac. "The Mavericks have secured nine locations, and of those nine, the power plant is the most vital. This facility must be taken back before the others. Are we clear so far?"

"Sure am," said Rock, stroking his neatly trimmed goatee. "So what are the other targets?"

"The national spaceport, cargo warehouse, the Reploid police division department, lightning diversion tower, commercial airport, railway control center, wildlife preserve, and the master media library."

Rock whistled. "Quite the list," he said.

"And it gets worse," said Isaac. "With these facilities, they intend to use their assets as vectors to spread the Maverick virus across the globe, and shut down the power grids to any counter-operative facilities, including this one. So far they haven't cracked the code system to shut down the intended grids, but it's only a matter of time before they do.

"Wait, if Lightning runs the power plant, wouldn't he know the codes?"

"Failsafe protocol," said Isaac quickly. "The memory banks that contain vital security information are deleted upon first detection of viral infection. You should be relieved."

"Believe me, I am," said Rock. "So, how long did this all take?"

"Forty-two hours," said Isaac. "By the time Jay confirmed the resurgence of the virus, their numbers had already increased. The built-in defenses were obliterated with relative ease. Unfortunately, they brought their own defenses along with them, so don't expect to just walk in and out."

"Wasn't in the first place. So, where's my armor?"

Isaac stood up as the lights flooded on again. "Right where you left it."

-

As soon as Rock had stepped into the teleport chamber, he found himself inside the power plant, looking exactly the same as it had last year. "Alice, are you there?" Rock asked.

"The anti-jammers are working fine, Rock," came Alice's voice in his ear through his helmet, "we shouldn't have a problem communicating, unlike last time."

"Good," said Rock, "It's always great to hear your voice."

Alice giggled. "You can flatter me later, Rock, but let's just get this job done, okay?"

"Alright," Rock sighed, "let's rock!"

The vibrating in his arm cannon was a welcome feeling as Rock charged it to maximum power, charging down the hallway. A small engine-like drone floated into view, and was quickly blasted back out. So far, so good, Rock thought to himself, recharging his cannon as he leapt over a chasm. Two more of the same drones swooped in on Rock, looking to ram themselves into him. With one quick hop into the air, Rock skidded along the floor on his side, zooming underneath the drones and flipping back up to his feet, whipping his arm around and unleashing a volley of blasts behind him. Without so much as dropping a bit of speed, Rock continued his mad dash down the main hallway, eventually coming to a screeching halt at a dead end. "Huh, I don't remember this being here," Rock muttered, looking at the chute-like drop before him.

"Well since you trashed the place," Alice hummed, not needing to go any further.

"Point taken," Rock said, boldly jumping down into the chute.

"Wait a second Rock," said Alice, "did you just come to a disposal chute?"

"Is that what that this was?" asked Rock as he fell.

"Tell me you didn't just jump in there."

Rock winced. "Okay, I won't. Why?"

"Rock," Alice breathed anxiously, "keep your cannon charged."

"Why don't I like the sound of that?" Rock muttered to himself, quickly heeding Roll's advice as he dropped out the other end of the chute.

The sight of what seemed to be thousands of flying drone machines was the first thing that greeted him, and they immediately began to swarm forwards. Running backwards as he shot frantically into the wall of menacing Mavericks, Rock remembered Storm's whirlwind weapon, and willed his systems to switch to the format. Aiming dead center into the sea of drones, Rock fired. Nothing but a single standard energy blast shot from his cannon, shooting down but one of hundreds of the drones quickly gaining on him. Cycling through the weapons he thought he had acquired a year ago, Rock was surprised and horrified to discover that all he was capable of was his lone arm cannon. As the drones came within sweeping distance, Rock pivoted on his heel and just decided to run for his life. Spotting an opening on the ceiling at the dead-end ahead of him, Rock leapt onto the wall, launching himself up into another chute, bounding from side to side upwards as he charged all the energy he could pack inside his arm cannon. And as the hundreds of drones struggled to cram themselves up the compact chute after him, Rock aimed his cannon into the center of them and firing.

The explosion that followed launched Rock out of the top of the chute, bouncing his body off a wall and a few feet down the following hallway. Dazed and woozy, Rock picked himself up wearily and stumbled down the corridor, suddenly hearing something heavy slam down behind him. Rock's vision uncrossed as he glanced over his shoulder to see that a large iron shutter had just cut him off from the rest of the hallway. "Oh great, not these things again," Rock complained, banging his fist in futility against the shutter. Sighing and shaking the fog from his head, Rock stared at the other shutter ahead of him. "Alice, is this where Lightning's holed himself up in?"

"Judging by how much interference I'm getting," said Alice's static-riddled voice, "it must be."

Rock sighed, charged his arm cannon, and walked towards the shutter. "Time to have a little chat with my old pal."

As soon as Rock approached the shutter, it flew up into the ceiling, allowing him a few seconds to pass underneath before it came slamming down again, trapping him inside the room beyond. "Well well," came a familiar voice, "if it isn't the Blue Bomber again."

Rock looked around the room, trying to spot Lightning in the near complete darkness. "Hey Lightning, long time no see," said Rock, "how's the other guys I blew up last year?"

"Fine, I guess," came Lightning's voice again. "Hopefully they've come to their senses too."

"Come to their senses?" Rock asked, "You mean being infected, don't you?"

"Either works."

Rock rolled his eyes. "You know, I'm sure we've got a lot of catching up to do, but I've got a lot of work ahead of me, Lightning. So since I know you're not giving up this place without a fight, why don't you just show yourself already and get this over with?"

Rock's request was answered by a surging blast of power slamming into his back, knocking him face-first onto the floor. "Fine," said Lighting, emerging from the shadows and stepping into the more well-lit center of the room.

Still feeling the power surge tickling his fingertips, Rock sprung back to his feet, and whirled around to glare eye-to-eye with Lightning. "Alright then," he said, charging his arm cannon, "let's rock."

Rock let loose a fierce blast of energy, but Lightning's superior speed allowed him to easily sidestep the blast, extend an open hand towards Rock, and unleash a crackling lightning bolt, zapping Rock square in the chest. Rock stood paralyzed on his feet, shaking from the charge of electricity surging through his body. Once he was finally able to move again, Rock instinctually leapt up into the air, and double-jumped for good measure, watching another speeding lightning bolt sizzle underneath him. As soon as he landed again, Rock coiled his knees and pushed off against the floor, zooming across the room with his leg armor's hover-dash function, stopping just in time to point his arm cannon into Lightning's chest and firing a fully charged blast. The point-blank blast blew Lighting into the air and against a wall, and Rock wasted no time in charging at Lightning again. Lightning suddenly crossed his arms, and flung them spread-eagle with a mighty scream, unleashing a fierce wave of electricity upon the entire room, flooring Rock in an instant. As soon as Rock sprung back to his feet, Lightning planted his palm on Rock's left shoulder, and let a massive current of electricity channel though Rock's body. With Rock's left side totally paralyzed, Lightning sneered and said, "There's no way I'd let you beat me three times, Bomber. Where's your drills now?"

Mustering all the strength he could into his right leg, Rock wound his foot back and grinned weakly. "Who needs drills," he murmured, swiftly jamming the toe of his foot armor into the ground, "When you've got pointy boots?"

The surge of power running through Rock's body immediately ceased, and soon Lighting was staring down the barrel of Rock's arm cannon. "That's no fair," Lightning whined before Rock fired directly into Lightning's face, blowing his head clean off his shoulders.

Rock collapsed to his knees and breathed a long sigh of relief. "Whew, hey Alice," Rock groaned, sore from all the electrical abuse, "I'm done. Tell Jay to get the teleporter ready."

"Good to hear," said Alice. "With Lighting no longer in control, that'll shut down any Maverick plans to take the power grid offline. So what happened to Lightning?"

Rock snickered. "You could say he couldn't keep his head on."

"Good," said Jay's voice inside Rock's helmet, "I was hoping for something like that. Rock, would you mind bringing Lightning's head along with you?"

Rock scooped up Lighting's severed head in his arm. "Sure, but why?" he asked.

"You'll see," said Jay's voice as Rock vanished in a flash of light.


	4. Sidewinders

Rock stepped out of the teleportation chamber, and upon spotting Jay out of the corner of his eye, Rock tossed Lightning's head up and said, "Hey, catch!"

Jay lunged forward to catch Lightning's head with both arms. "Careful, I need this head!" he said scoldingly.

"What for?" Rock asked.

Jay cleared his throat. "If you'll follow me to my lab," he said, "I'll be able to explain everything."

With Lightning's head placed on the small platform on Jay's desk, Jay hooked it up with various cables into the back of his computer, immediately displaying graphs and charts of all sorts on the monitor. "Hey Lightning, wake up," said Jay, prodding the head on the cheek.

Lightning's eyes slowly fluttered open. "Whuh… what happened?" Lighting murmured groggily. Upon flashing his eyes down, Lightning asked, "And where's my body?"

"My fault, sorry," Rock said.

"You again?" Lightning asked, stunned. "Jay, what's going on?"

"Hmm, so you don't remember," Jay mused, swiveling around in his office chair. "Well, to make a long story short, you and a bunch of other officers went Maverick, and Rock's here to clean up the mess. I was going to ask you for some inside info on the new Maverick uprising, but I guess if you've forgotten it all-"

"Oh, it's all coming back to me now," Lightning's head murmured. "Jay, how long have the others been infected?"

"Two days, why?"

Lighting snarled. "Dammit, it's too late!"

"What's too late?" Rock asked.

Lightning's head took a long sigh. "You're not dealing with the Maverick virus," he said, "the others were infected with a more developed strain."

Jay's jaw dropped. "More developed?" he asked, "Are you saying someone's been engineering the Maverick virus?"

"The Sidewinder virus, I think that's what they're calling it," Lightning's head replied. "Mavericks who knew that another Hunter would be brought in to exterminate them, modified the Maverick virus into a strain that would boost their power and stamina."

"So why weren't you infected with it?" Rock asked.

"I was one of the first Reploids to go Maverick," said Lighting, "and at that time, the Sidewinder virus was still being developed. I heard something about a conflict between the two viruses, how the Maverick virus's built-in anti-program systems would kill the Sidewinder virus in an already Maverick host, and vice-versa."

"It's hard to believe," Jay muttered, "It took doctor Doppler decades to develop a Maverick anti-virus, and he was the most intelligent Reploid ever built. And all records of his research were destroyed along with Dopplertown, too. And because of that Neo Arcadia fiasco, it would take a century to develop a vaccination again, much less a modification!"

"It's in play now anyway," said Lightning.

Jay groaned in defeat as his computer chimed. "Well, your neural CPU's been cleaned," he said, unhooking Lightning's head from the computer, "Rock, I'd better run some tests on the Maverick virus samples we've got before we can let you out to play again. In the meantime, Lightning, try not to get into too much trouble, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll go out for a little jog," Lightning's head sneered as Rock and Jay left the room.

Although free from his armor for the time being, it was a long climb up the many flights of stairs, and Rock was grateful to have the cooling wind whip about him on the rooftop of the Reploid Research Institute. For the first time since his upgrade, Rock ran his fingers through his plentiful jet-black hair, feeling not his old, rough and frayed locks, but silk-like titanium strands. "Feels nice, doesn't it?" asked a voice from behind him.

Rock glanced over his shoulder to see Marie behind him, strolling up to his side. "A lot better than my old rug," said Rock, leaning on the edge of the roof.

Marie was quick to join him. "So Rock, remember anything yet?"

"I used to be quite a good artist," he said.

"Really?" Marie asked.

Rock groaned, dug into his pocket, and handed Marie a tattered piece of notepaper covered with scribbles "Not anymore."

Marie shrugged. "Well, what else have you been doing for these last thirteen months?" she asked.

Rock sighed. "Searching."

"For Dawn?" Marie asked. Rock nodded. "Any luck?"

Rock muttered and shook his head. "No, not even a trace."

Marie hummed. "She must be a pretty fantastic lady, huh?"

Rock shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know."

Marie's jaw dropped. "Maybe? What do you mean, you don't know?"

"Just that," said Rock, "I don't remember what she's like. I can't remember if we were even friends at all."

"You mean to tell me you've been looking for someone who you don't even know for over a whole year?"

"That's about the size of it," said Rock.

Marie was bewildered. "W-why?" She finally managed to stammer.

"I don't have many memories," said Rock, "and almost all of them are only a year old. I don't know how old I am, where I came from, who my friends were- Marie, I don't even know who the hell I am!" Rock paused to take a deep breath. "I used to have a life, and I want it back. If I can find Dawn, maybe, just maybe, I can fill in all these blanks and become more than just a fighting robotic corpse."

Marie let it all sink in for a moment. "Wow," she said, amazed, "You're pretty deep. But what if you don't find her? What if you spend your entire new life searching?"

Rock turned to Marie, and stared at here eye-to-eye. "I will find Dawn," he vowed.

He stared at her for a little while longer. "Ooo-kay, I get it," said Marie, awkwardly looking away. Sighing, Marie asked, "So how would you say your current life's been?"

Rock shrugged. "Fine. I guess."

There was a brief silence between them. "Anything else?" Marie asked.

Rock shook his head. Another moment of silence passed before Marie sighed in defeat. "What?" Rock asked.

"Nothing," Marie muttered as she rolled her eyes and headed back to the stairs.


End file.
